Last week the Ann Arbor Film Festival concluded its 47th year of programming with the same kind of diverse and eclectic line-up that it has prided itself on since its inception back at U of M’s Lorch Hall auditorium in 1963. Taking place at the historic Michigan Theater, this year’s theme captured the “new world of indie cinema,” with its varied showcases, films in competition, and exemplary retrospectives from around the world. Just as important as its adventurous lineup and star-worthy guests (including The Animation Show’s Don Hertzfeldt), this year’s installment housed what could be the biggest hotbed of contention between artists and the law right now – that being the litigious battle regarding copyrights and fair-use. In an age when any person – young or old – with basic computer skills can create audio or visual art out of anything bombarding them within the culture, the Ann Arbor Film Festival defied its age and proved to be even more relevant than ever – delivering films, artists and discussions on the subject. If ever there was a time to attend such an honored fest (rated in the top ten festivals in the world, according to Variety), this year was sure it.

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While the majority of headlines dealing with the film coverage of this year’s SXSW Festival were dedicated to such notable screenings of Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell or Seth Rogen’s Observe and Report, the real success stories are the winners themselves. Despite the downturn in the economy, the fest achieved actual growth this year and is solidifying its place as both a home to independent cinema and a friend to the studio hype machine. While it’s hard to say how the latter will effect the fest in the long run, we can delight in this year’s winners circle as proof that the spirit of indie cinema is alive and well. Read on for the list of winners, as well as their corresponding trailers and further links for the fest.

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As a die-hard horror fan, one of my favorite things is to walk into a movie theater and witness something truly unexpected and terrifying. To me, the thrill of gazing up at the screen and being rattled to the core by something I’ve never seen before is what makes it all worthwhile. It’s a bit of a rarity these days, but it still happens on occasion, and it’s reassuring to know that some filmmakers are still interested in exploring our fears by telling great stories — rather than simply remaking one of their favorite films or cashing in by churning out an endless series of uninspired sequels.

Looking ahead towards the dark horizon of horror, it appears that there are some sinister treats in store for macabre-minded moviegoers in the coming months. Though it’s impossible to tell whether any film will ultimately live up to the hype that precedes it (it is, after all, fairly easy to cut a great trailer for a crappy flick), here is a list of promising horror films that have gotten some recent buzz while making the festival rounds and setting the blogs ablaze.

Please keep in mind that given the genre and subject matters, many of these trailers are NSFW.

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Anyone who’s been keeping tabs on the indie horror scene has no doubt heard the name Adam Wingard being bandied about by now. Not only has Wingard’s innovative experimental horror film Pop Skull managed to generate quite a buzz on the festival circuit over the course of the last year, but his freshman feature Home Sick - an ambitious little shocker featuring appearance by genre veterans Bill Moseley and Tom Towles - is set to be released on DVD from Synapse Films later this month as well. For horror fans who have grown tired of the typical slasher film formula and constant onslaught of remakes, Wingard may be just the director we’ve been waiting for to give our beloved genre a much-needed goose. As evidenced by his quote singling out Pop Skull as “the film to watch while you’re robotripping” it’s obvious that Wingard isn’t the sort to play it safe, and his interview with Colin Armstrong over at Twitch Film details how he’s currently getting primed for bigger and better things.

Full interview here.

Those who prefer their comedy served nice and quirky are sure to be familiar with the name Zach Galifinackis (if you’re not, you may want to take a look at his work for yourself since words in a blog can’t really do it justice), though to this point in his career the ivory tickling comic has been relegated primarily to supporting performances.

Thankfully, with Visioneers, that all seems set to change.

In the film, Galifinackis plays George Washington Winsterhammerman, a Level Three Visioneer at The Jeffers Corporation - the largest and most successful business in the history of mankind. The reason that the Jeffers Corporation has been so successful is its strict philosophy of happiness through mindless productivity. Lately, however, people all around Winsterhammerman have been literally exploding due to unhappiness. When Winsterhammerman begins experiencing a series of increasingly surreal dreams that his doctor believes to be a sign of impending detonation, the previously unquestioning office drone is suddenly prompted to reevaluate his passionless existence.

For more info and a full trailer, check out the official Visioneers website here.

According to “sources”, mysterious though they may be, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom as the Crystal Skull is being prepped for a worldwide premiere at the celebrated Cannes Film Festival. The premiere – if it happens – will precede the film’s official release date of May 22, 2008.

If these sources are not, in fact, cruelly mucking about with our dreams, all of Indy 4’s major players, from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, to Karen Allen and Harrison Ford, will make their first Jones-related red carpet appearance since the 1989 release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. There will be no Nazis on the premises.

As the screens go dim at Sundance, the Slamdance crew sweeps the floors after their closing reception, and the projectionists at the Rotterdam prepare to wind up their reels, one may wonder what films to watch for from these three popular film festivals. Having written about many of the films from these fests for the All Movie Guide, I thought it would be fun to pull together a collection of films that piqued my interest. Of course I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t have the most mainstream tastes when it comes to movies, so the flicks that I single out may not be the ones that will receive the most commercial exposure, and your mileage may vary. If you’ve seen something interesting at one of the fests – by all means feel free to chime in by voicing your picks in the comments section below!

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In addition to an excellent YouTube site where you can see interviews with many of the major players who have films screening at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, the Sundance Channel is celebrating the festival’s history by showcasing at 9PM every night in January, a film that made a name for itself at the event. Click here to find a full schedule where you can catch up with such former festival favorites as The Motorcycle Diaries, The Puffy Chair, Half Nelson, and The Doom Generation.